COMSOL Inc. announced the release of a major upgrade of its add-on Acoustics Module for its flagship product COMSOL Multiphysics. This latest version of the Acoustics Module offers new capabilities and expanded multiphysics user interfaces for simulating thermoacoustic effects, poroelastic waves, acoustic-shell interactions, and piezo-acoustic devices. The new version of the Acoustics Module is available immediately.

"This release of the Acoustics Module brings a new level of predictive power to acoustic simulations," says Mads J. Herring Jensen, Technical Product Manager for acoustics at COMSOL. "For the first time, manufacturers of acoustic devices for smart phones, hearing aids, and earpieces can perform thermoacoustic simulations with an industry-standard commercial multiphysics software package. The ability to combine such simulations with electrical circuits and structural vibrations raises the bar for state-of-the-art acoustics simulations of mobile devices."

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Additional application areas for the Acoustics Module, adds Herring Jensen, include speakers, microphones, and sonar devices as well as noise control in areas such as muffler design, sound barriers, and building acoustics. The module's physics interfaces provide easy-to-use tools to model acoustic pressure wave propagation in air, water, and other fluids. The Acoustics Module also enables users to model vibrations and elastic waves in solids and piezoelectric materials, as well as their bidirectional interaction with a surrounding fluid, easily.

"Our analysis of acoustic applications has ranged from the design of miniature microphones and loudspeakers, development of MEMS-based photoacoustic and piezo-acoustic technologies, optimization of room design for acoustic energy distribution, and identification of sources for noise emission. Each of these applications has required the implementation of additional functionality into COMSOL Multiphysics to provide accurate analysis of real world systems," comments Dr. Jeffrey S. Crompton, Principal of AltaSim Technologies, Columbus, OH.

Through his company, Crompton provides a range of products and services such as customized computational analyses and the development of functional prototypes for market sectors including medical devices, defense, petrochemical refining, automotive, and materials development.

The new capabilities of the Acoustics Module are fully compatible with all the COMSOL add-on modules. Any acoustics phenomena can link to any other physics effect -- a feature that is crucial for real-world precision simulations of acoustics devices. "The upgrades in this version of the Acoustics Module will provide all users with access to critical functionality associated with analysis of acoustics phenomena. These additions greatly enhance the flexibility of COMSOL Multiphysics and will allow users to integrate relevant phenomena more easily and develop more accurate simulations of real-world performance. This will benefit all developers of new products and technologies and increase the rate at which new technologies can reach the marketplace," concludes Crompton.